Liquor tragedy: Congress MPs flag 'clear-cut failure' of state govt, demand CBI, ED probe

Chandigarh: Two Congress parliamentarians targeted their party-led government in Punjab on Monday over the spurious liquor tragedy, which has claimed over 100 lives, and petitioned the governor for probe by the CBI and the ED into the "illegal" trade in alcohol.

Meanwhile, The death toll rose to 110 with six more people reported dead after drinking spurious liquor, officials said on Monday. Three fatalities were reported from Tarn Taran, two from Gurdaspur's Batala and one from Amritsar, they said.

Rajya Sabha members Partap Singh Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo alleged "clear-cut failure" on the part of the state administration and claimed the tragedy could have been averted, had Chief Minister Amarinder Singh acted in time on their complaints about illegal liquor businesses. After meeting Governor V P Singh Badnore, Congress leader Bajwa said they had demanded probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the alleged illegal liquor trade in the state.

The MPs said the tragedy was "bound to happen" in the "absence" of timely action by the Congress government.

"Had CM acted in time, the hooch tragedy would not have taken place.... We have been highlighting this issue since 2017," Dullo said, adding that it was the responsibility of the state government to act tough against liquor smugglers.

He alleged that there has been rampant inter-state smuggling of illicit liquor during the Coronavirus-induced lockdown. The two leaders said they would meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and, thereafter, take up the issue with the prime minister and the Union home minister.

"We will also raise the issue of deaths of people in Parliament," said Bajwa.

He said the chief minister or the police chief or the chief secretary should have visited the areas where people died.

In a letter handed over to the governor, the MPs said for many months, loss to the public exchequer due to smuggling of liquor by licensed distilleries, functioning of illegal distilleries and production of spurious liquor in Punjab has been in news.